UT History Series: Richard Schmidt and Return of Men's Basketball
By Joey Johnston
When the University of Tampa revived its men's basketball program in 1983-84 — after a 12-season absence when UT administrators dropped the program because of poor attendance and financial concerns — no one knew what to expect.
That included Coach Richard Schmidt.
"When I got here, we didn't have any players and we didn't have our own gym to play the home games,'' said Schmidt, who was hired in the summer of 1982 (one year out from the first game). "I knew we had a chance to build it, but how can you really predict? So much of it is selling a dream.''
And that's what it became.
A dream season.
Schmidt's Spartans, with four freshman starters and nine first-year players overall on the roster, won the Sunshine State Conference Tournament, advanced to the NCAA Division II South Regionals and finished 20-11.
Schmidt, now in his 37th season with the Spartans, has voluminous UT accomplishments, including eight SSC titles, six All-American players, 14 NCAA Tournament appearances and one trip to the Final Four.
But it all began with that first team, which surpassed all reasonable expectations and set a golden standard.
BRINGING BACK THE PROGRAM
UT had its first men's basketball team in 1933 — two years after the university opened — and it captured the Florida AAU title. Overall, though, the Spartans struggled to find consistent success.
The best season was 1949-50 (20-14). There were notable players, such as John Napier, who had a school-record 56 points against Valdosta State on Jan. 8, 1969. Napier was among four original-era Spartans to sign professional contracts.
Dana Kirk, who later helped Memphis State to the 1985 Final Four, was UT's coach for five seasons. His 1969-70 team was 17-10. But things quickly went south the next season as the Spartans stumbled to 8-17, while playing a schedule that included Maryland, Tulane, Dayton and Georgia Tech.
No one knew it then, but UT's 99-72 road defeat against Georgia Tech on Feb. 26, 1971 was the final game before the men's basketball program went dormant. On April 15, 1971, the decision was made to drop men's basketball — about four years before the UT Board of Trustees voted to drop football.
That began a dark era for Spartan athletics. There were no full-time coaches, very few athletic scholarships, poor facilities and a wounded self-image.
When Bob Birrenkott became UT's athletic director in 1976, the course was altered. He developed a 10-point plan to change Spartan athletics and a key element was the reinstitution of men's basketball, so the Spartans could become full-fledged members of the SSC.
"If we didn't play men's basketball, we weren't going to be in the conference,'' Birrenkott said. "The conference affiliation was very important to us. We developed the plan, got the funding, had it moving and all of the other athletic directors were very supporting. Having the University of Tampa in the conference was a win-win for everyone.
"Now we needed to find a coach.''
SCHMIDT'S ARRIVAL
There was considerable interest in UT's position, but one name rose above all the rest.
He spent two seasons as Vanderbilt's head coach with a combined 28-27 record. For the Commodores, he had recruited Brandon High School's Jeff Turner, who went on to win a gold medal with the 1984 U.S. Olympic team and become a first-round NBA draft choice.
Schmidt, a native of Louisville, Ky., had also been a highly respected assistant under Virginia coach Terry Holland after registering a 182-32 record at Louisville's Ballard High School.
He was a winner. He had a name. And the UT job seemed intriguing.
"They were starting a program in Tampa, a great town, and they told me they had ambitions of going Division I very soon,'' Schmidt said. "It sounded good to me. In retrospect, I'm not sure I knew exactly what I was getting into. I just knew we had to work like crazy to get it off the ground.''
Schmidt spent the first year recruiting players — with the games still a year away — and selling a brand-new program with distantly modest tradition and tremendous potential.
"Richard came out of the blocks like he had a team,'' Birrenkott said. "Every night there was a high-school game, he was there. He scoured the other colleges and the junior colleges. Did he get the job and take a year off? No sir. This was one hard-working coach.''
Schmidt immediately hired Don Bostic, his former assistant coach at Vanderbilt who he coached at Ballard High. It wasn't exactly by the book, but Schmidt and Bostic began stockpiling some impressive talent.
"Bostic and I were sitting in the stands during a Christmas tournament at Eckerd College,'' Schmidt said. "This athletic looking kid walked by. I don't even think he was playing in the tournament. I liked the way he looked and the way he walked.
"I said, 'Bostic, find out who that guy is. He's a player.' Really and truly, that's how we got on him.''
It was Todd Linder, who became a three-time All-American at UT, the NCAA record-holder for field-goal percentage and an NBA draft pick.
Later on, Schmidt returned to Louisville and visited his parents.
There was a high-school tournament going on, so he grabbed a hometown buddy and they went to watch. One extremely versatile player caught Schmidt's eye. He was flabbergasted to learn the player was from Sarasota. Schmidt introduced himself.
The player was Johnny Jones, who became UT's swiss-army knife, a gritty, tough-minded leader who could guard a 7-footer or play point guard with equal skill.
Schmidt convinced Al Miller, an All-SEC Freshman selection at Vanderbilt in 1980-81, to join him at UT. He scoured the local high-school teams for untapped talent. He cherry-picked in other geographic areas.
Finally, he had a team.
The once-dormant Spartans were wide awake and ready to play some basketball.
THE FIRST SEASON
Jones, who also played football at Sarasota, remembered Schmidt's convincing recruiting pitch. Schmidt was there all the time. His family and coaches fell in love with the personable coach, and Jones gradually realized the merits of playing in his home area.
"It was a wonderful scenario,'' Jones said.
Then practice began.
Not so wonderful.
"We really worked those kids hard and got them into shape,'' Schmidt said. "We ran and ran and ran. We put garbage cans at the end of the gym in case they needed that.
"I don't think I could get kids nowadays to do what those kids did. But they all loved each other and it hurt them to lose. You lose a game these days and a kid is liable to say, 'Oh well … where's my phone?' But those kids. Man, they were tough and winning games was important to them.''
Practices were at the old Howell Gym, near UT's campus, but the games were played at Hillsborough Community College (and occasionally downtown at the old Curtis Hixon Convention Center).
"Howell Gym? Oh … my … gosh,'' Jones said with a laugh. "Some of the windows were blown out. It was freezing in there, so we had to practice in our warmups. If it rained, the place leaked. We had to put out the buckets and practice around the buckets. Some of it was just crazy.
"Even with all of that, we became a team. We were a bunch of guys who didn't know any different. We came in with open hearts and open minds. We were just ready to go. I think Coach Schmidt got the right kind of personalities. Al Miller? Man, that guy was not going to let us lose.''
Miller, a 6-foot-5 forward who battled a late-season ankle injury, led the Spartans in scoring (18.3 points per game) and rebounding (6.2).
But the most amazing UT story was Schmidt's ability to recognize young talent.
Almost immediately, Linder became a star. Linder, 6-foot-6 and 190 pounds, was a world-class leaper, a highlight-reel shot-blocker and an offensive talent whose game grew exponentially almost every time out. Linder averaged 16.7 points and six rebounds per game, while shooting 65.4 percent from the field. He closed his freshman season with games of 31 and 39 points in the NCAA South Regionals.
"Todd was just the best athlete in the gym every game we played,'' Jones said. "He could do it all. He was the best player I've ever played with. He was special.''
Schmidt considered Jones, a 6-4, 225-pounder, to be equally special.
"Coach Schmidt told me he liked my style, that I reminded him of Quinn Buckner (the former Indiana University and NBA player),'' Jones said. "He put a lot of pressure on me to be the glue. Even though I was a freshman, I felt like a four-year captain. He kept me on the bench and whenever somebody made a mistake, regardless of the position, he'd say, 'Johnny, go get him.'
"There were times I thought he was the meanest man in the world. He was a tough coach. Today, I appreciate what he did for me. I really do.''
Schmidt assigned key roles to Greg Aplin, a tough-minded point guard from Florida College; Moses Sawney, a sweet-shooting versatile talent from Robinson High; and point guard Craig Mateer, leader of Orlando Boone High's Class 4A state championship team.
Schmidt's first Spartan team faced five Division I opponents, losing all the games, but competing against Florida State (83-70), Tulane (64-60), Southeastern Louisiana (59-52), Purdue (106-50) and Northwestern (49-34).
There was a nine-game winning streak that coincided with the start of SSC play, then the Spartans stumbled to a 2-5 finish in the regular season while mostly playing without Miller.
But in the SSC Tournament at Lakeland, UT defeated Florida Southern 57-55 in the semifinals, then the University of Central Florida 53-52 in the championship game to become the initial first-year program to earn an NCAA Tournament bid.
The Spartans split their NCAA Regional games, losing 64-63 against West Georgia, then defeating Albany State 87-77.
It was heady stuff for a first-year program. And warning shots were fired for the rest of the SSC. Interestingly, when SSC honors were announced, there was a four-way tie for the eight-team conference's Coach of the Year award.
None of them were named Richard Schmidt.
Some might consider that an attempt to put a wildly ambitious program in its place. Whatever. Linder and Miller did make second-team All-SSC, while Jones was named honorable mention.
"Somebody had to get it started and it was us,'' Jones said. "It's amazing what we went through, but we're bonded forever. We never had a real reunion and I wish we could. What we accomplished as a first-year program, I think it speaks for itself.''
Joey Johnston has worked in the Tampa Bay sports media for more than three decades, winning multiple national awards while covering events such as the Super Bowl, World Series, Final Four, Wimbledon, the U. S. Open, the Stanley Cup Finals and all the major bowl games. But his favorite stories have always been about Tampa Bay Area teams and athletes. A third-generation Tampa native, he was a regular in the Tampa Stadium stands at University of Tampa football games.